Every community is an island, belonging to a global archipelago.

Based in the coastal town of San Juan, La Union, Philippines, Emerging Islands is an arts-for-ecology organization that enables coastal communities, artists, and scientists to collaborate on stories about the most urgent ecological issues of our times, centering island communities in the global conversation on climate and ecology. Initially founded as an art residency, it is now a project space that positions the archipelago as a theoretical and practical framework in its mission, and is guided by three pillars: art, ecology, and community.

Over the course of three years, we have staged workshops with various groups in our community as well as around the Philippines. Our workshop program, Paaralang Kapuluan (Archipelago School), builds on the growing network of artists, scientists, and educators working on ecological issues in our coastal town. By holding space for island voices and narratives, we hope to foster greater awareness and solidarity around the issues that coastal communities face and the shared culture that we belong to, so that together we can begin to imagine the possibility of an interdependent world and a global archipelago.

 
 

What does it mean to think, create, and relate as an archipelago?

The Philippine archipelago offers us a powerful model for collaboration and interdependence. Taking inspiration from our islands, we created our own framework for bringing together art and community for the sake of ecology, which we apply to all of our organisation’s projects. 

Our approach begins and returns to community dialogue–taking our cues from identified leaders and stakeholders to determine the issues and stories we should pursue, what question to explore. From there we design a concept and curatorial program with various artistic, technical, and community collaborators. In truth, the concept and creative process is iterative, evolving in-the-moment in the space of the residency, which is the heart of our organisation. The output of our artists and collaborators are then shared publicly, in the form of community events, storytelling about the artistic process itself, and impact measured by feedback from local and global communities.

Our Team

The Emerging Islands team was founded by practitioners from different arts and arts adjacent backgrounds, bringing in experience and expertise from the fields of publishing, curating, music, visual arts, production, and strategy. By working collaboratively, our small team has added to the cultural landscape of La Union, amassed a database of over 200 community contacts, and formed relationships with key stakeholders in the fields of art and ecology.

  • Nicola Sebastian

    Nicola is a writer, surfer, and National Geographic explorer living in La Union. She is interested in “islandness,” both as space and sensibility. She graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, New York, where she also taught fiction writing to undergraduates. She is working on an ecological memoir on disaster, discovery, and the Philippines.

  • Samantha Zarandin

    Sam is a creative producer and project manager with a background in art, ecology, and storytelling. With a passion for co-creation and decolonization, she works at the intersection of creative production, ecological advocacy, and community engagement. Currently, she is a program manager for National Geographic and Mind Museum Manila’s upcoming project and is most interested in leveraging collaborative storytelling to inspire ecological consciousness and systemic change.

  • David Loughran

    David is an independent curator. In 2018, he co-opened LIMBO, a midnight gallery and bar in Makati that gave way to emerging contemporary artists finding their experimental voice in a community built on creative symbiosis. He uses conceptual design as a framework in curation, and is interested in shaping alternative narratives of world-making.

  • Hannah Reyes Morales

    Hannah is a photographer and National Geographic Explorer whose work documents tenderness amidst adversity. She contributes to The New York Times and National Geographic, among others. The World Economic Forum named her a cultural leader in their ASEAN forum. She is currently working on long term projects focusing on safer space making, and caregiving.